Job Insecurity and Health: The Moderating Role of Workplace Control

Based on data from 187 black South African gold miners, we examine the relationships between job insecurity, workplace control and personal outcomes (psychosomatic symptoms, negative mood, blood pressure) and organizational outcomes (turnover intentions, organizational commitment). Job insecurity was positively related to turnover intentions and negative mood. Perceptions of workplace control (ie the ability to protect oneself from negative events at work) were negatively related to both turnover intentions and negative mood, and positively related to organizational commitment. Perceived control moderated the relationship between somatic symptoms and blood pressure on the one hand, and job insecurity. Job insecurity was positively associated with somatic symptoms and blood pressure when perceived workplace control was low, but unrelated to these outcomes when perceived workplace control was high. Implications of these results for interventions are discussed.